All A Blaze
by castlenova
Summary: Beckett has a new case that makes her living arrangements rather difficult. Castle steps in to help her out. Title may change. CASKETT. Rating revised up for safety - will rise again later.
1. Chapter 1

ONE

Kate Beckett moaned loudly as the alarm blared deafeningly in her ear. God, it was never normally that loud, was it? Maybe her senses were heightened from the lack of sleep. She knew that didn't make sense because normally lack of sleep should result in the opposite. Then again, she never was one to apply to the norms.

Taking a deep breath, she swung her legs from the bed and slammed her hand down on the alarm clock. But the alarm didn't stop. Prying open her eyes, she looked at the clock – the red letters stating that it was 04:50. She frowned before her eyes widened and she realised what the loud blaring was in her head.

"You've got to be kidding me…" she groaned, reaching down and finding a pair trainers to slip her feet into. Quickly, she grabbed her gun and holster, her badge, her father's watch and her mother's ring on the chain. As she moved out of the room, she grabbed her NYPD hoodie from the chair by the door and pulled it on as she headed for her door.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Beckett pulled her door shut, making sure her keys were in her pocket and tucked both her gun and holster up under her jumper. She was surprised to see so many people darting through the corridors in nightdresses and pyjamas, panicked.

She stopped next to her neighbour Mrs Barry who was holding onto her cat for dear life.

"Mrs Barry, are you ok?"

"Fine darling but there's a fire," the old lady said scuttling toward the stairwell, the cat meowing happily in her arms. Beckett raised her eyebrows.

"Mrs Barry, I'm sure it's just a faulty alarm. Let's just get downstairs," she said, taking the woman's arm and leading her towards the stairs. She yawned loudly as she started to descend the steps. She didn't need this now. So help her God, there'd better be a fire because if she was after getting her up at this hour for a faulty alarm she would be very annoyed indeed.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Beckett sauntered out through the front door and was taken aback at the sight outside. Three fire brigades, a ladder reaching up into the sky. Beckett's jaw dropped and as she turned around to view the building and saw the top floor ablaze. She watched the firemen darting about on the ground before watching another two burst through the front door heading up the stairs. Another one passed by her.

"Excuse me sir, what happened?"

The man turned back to her.

"You a fire officer?" he asked indignantly and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm a cop."

"Well unless you can point a hose, get behind the line," he bellowed and pointed to the line that was being manned by patrolmen from the 12th. She recognised one of them and nodded hello to him before ducking under the wire and standing back.

She took another look at the building, watching as a wall collapsed at the top of the building and she shook her head.

"God damn it, not again…" she said, realising that for the second time in two years, she was homeless.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

_So that's the first chapter, it was just something that popped into my head. I'm not quite sure where it's going but thinking I can try to figure that out as I go._

_What do people think? Should I continue?_


	2. Chapter 2

TWO

Beckett hung around the building for long enough to know that she wouldn't be getting back in tonight, not even to gather some clothes. She was glad she had taken those few possessions with her when she'd left earlier. She wondered absently if there'd be any possibility of getting into the basement car park to get her car but decided that she was probably being incredibly stupid to even consider such a possibility.

Instead she gave her name to the building super, just to let him know that she was there and told him that she was going to get a cab. She walked a block before hailing down a cab and sitting into the back seat.

"Where to?" the cabbie asked and Beckett swallowed, glancing at the clock before giving him the address for the 12th.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Beckett wasn't long in the precinct when her phone rang. She looked down at the phone and saw an unknown number flashing up on it. She picked it up and answered.

"Beckett."

She sat down in her chair and listened carefully, thanking the officer when she hung up and she dropped the phone to the table, shaking her head.

"Damn it," she said again before picking up the phone and calling in her team. She left his number until last."

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Castle was busy making breakfast when his phone rang. He smiled when he saw the name flash across the screen and picked it up.

"Detective, who's the lucky stiff that has you eyeing him up?" he smirked and waited while she riled off the details. Fire at an apartment, building evacuated but body found on the second floor. Fire officer still investigating the cause but the scene was suspicious meaning Beckett and Co got called in.

"I'll be outside in ten," he said before she told him to make it five.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Beckett had changed into the spare set of clothes she had in the precinct before the boys arrived. She hadn't told anyone where the crime scene was except Lanie who had immediately asked if she was ok and what she was going to do now. Beckett had fobbed off her worry and told her she was trying to arrange some alternatives even though she wasn't and a part of her felt sure that as soon as they arrived at the crime scene Castle would jump to her aide and offer his house, his food and, probably most enthusiastically, his bed. The problem was she wasn't sure that she was against that scenario.

As she pulled up outside his building, she found herself wondering whether to tell him about the location of the murder scene or if she should just wait and let him see for himself.

The passenger door opened and he sat in, two coffee mugs in his hand, handing one to her. She smiled at the gesture.

"Jeez Castle, you opening a café in there?" she joked and he smirked.

"I am that good a partner I manage to get your coffee even in a tight squeeze," he replied and she started the car, pulling back out into the traffic.

"So where's the crime scene?" he asked brightly, obviously fully rested and alert. Beckett bit her bottom lip and coughed.

"Not far," she said and he raised an eyebrow at her, before letting his eyes glance down over her body. He pursed his lips wondering why it was that she was wearing her set of spare clothes from the precinct.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Beckett winced when she pulled up outside the crime scene, her apartment block and Castle raised his eyebrows, turning to look at her.

"Why didn't you tell me it was your place?" he asked, sounding more surprised than annoyed at her.

"Didn't seem important," she said quickly and he grabbed her arm as she moved to get out of the car.

"The hell it isn't, where are you planning on staying? The place is crisped!" he said loudly. She turned back to him and loosened his hand off her arm.

"We'll talk about it after," she said getting out of the car. He frowned and quickly opened his door to trot after her. He said no more, knowing by her stance that she was annoyed and not wanting to get on the wrong side of her. He had, after all, started forming a plan in his mind the minute he saw that it was her place that was burned out.

They made their way inside with the direction of a fireman and carefully clambered up the stairs into the second floor apartment where Lanie and the boys were inspecting the scene. The body, laid out on the floor was badly burnt and you could just about make out that it was a man's. Beckett frowned, trying to figure out if she knew who lived on the second floor. It was blank.

"Hey girl. You ok?" Lanie's voice rang up from her position on the ground. Beckett nodded.

"Yeah I'm fine. Getting a bit annoyed that people keep burning down my apartments though," she said it as a joke but everyone in the room knew that she was deadly serious. Beckett had her own spaces, her own routines and now that was going to be seriously upended. Her stoic exterior was not fooling anyone.

"Have you been able to salvage any of your stuff?" Lanie asked as she inspected something on the other side of the body and Beckett shook her head.

"Haven't tried yet. Might do it now. Any idea of a cause of death Lanie?"

Lanie looked up at her, eyebrows raised.

"Girl, I'm good but even I can't get surface evidence off a crisp. I won't know anything until I get him back to the lab. Hell, I can just about be sure that he's male," she said standing up. Beckett nodded, she had expected as much. She turned to Ryan and Esposito.

"Guys? Anything?"

"Nada."

"Zip."

"Wow. If this is a crime scene then it seems that burning it down after you're done with it really does work." Castle quipped as he ran along the resident's book shelves. There were all charred but he could just make out some of the titles along the spine. He chuckled.

"Hey, I'm on this shelf."

He turned to see all four of the team looking at him with that "Seriously Castle?" look. He shrugged.

"What? It's good to know he read some quality literature before he left the world."

Lanie shook her head, Beckett rolled her eyes and the two boys just looked away, laughing to themselves. Castle crossed the room, back to Beckett.

"He's also one of the over 15 million people to own a copy of How To Win Friends & Influence People so there's a good chance he's either a businessman trying to look smart or someone with a low self esteem trying to break out of a rut."

Beckett nodded at his observation.

"Maybe we'll wait for the landlord to give us his details. I'm going to see the fire chief about getting up to my apartment. You coming?"

"Of course."

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

The Fire Chief was reluctant to let Beckett back up to her floor but seemed to give in when she showed her badge. She also asked him for the fire report as soon as he had it to hand.

She took a deep breath as she walked through the splintered door of her apartment. It wasn't completely black but a good portion of it was. She slipped through to her bedroom while Castle examined the damage in her sitting room. It had remained relatively unscathed thankfully. She sighed as she felt his presence in her doorway.

"Hey, you got lucky. This room is pretty intact considering half the wall is missing at the front."

"This apartment is in the back. The wind must have been blowing away from it. Everything smells of smoke," she winced and wrinkled her nose like a rabbit. Castle smirked, looking at her book shelf. What was it with him and book shelves?

"Hey, at least your Castle collection survived huh?"

"Yeah, funny how every apartment I live in that catches fire, it somehow manages to miss your books," she joked and he smirked, leaning down and picking up a heavy duffel bag under her bed. He dropped it on the duvet. She looked at him quizzically.

"Kate, don't play dumb. I know you won't intrude on Lanie for fear of, well, being in the way of her and Esposito. Your dad lives all the way upstate. I have a spare room in a secure building and I'm sure the girls would love to have you to outnumber me even more."

"Castle, I…"

"It's no problem Kate. Honestly, it would be my pleasure to have you as our guest. For however long you need," he did a little mock head bow as he finished and she couldn't help but smile at him. He was a good guy, no, scrap that, he was a great guy. She just needed to let him in a bit more. Slowly she nodded her head.

"Ok. Help me pack."

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE


	3. Chapter 3

THREE

No one paid a lot of attention when Beckett and Castle reappeared with her carrying her bag packed full of most of her clothes. She knew she'd have to wash them but that wouldn't pose too much of a problem.

The body had been moved by the time they returned and just the CSU team were left with Esposito and Ryan keeping an eye over their shoulders to see if there was anything interesting to be spotted. They didn't look to be having much success. Esposito looked up when he saw them, crossing the room.

"Lanie's taken the body back to the morgue. She said she might have something by this afternoon but it'll be slow so don't get your hopes up. Building super confirmed that the victim's name was Trent Henderson. Divorced, his ex-wife lives out in Long Island with their kid. They came to visit on Saturday but told the super he mustn't have been home. He was a lawyer working for a pretty big company in Manhattan. Ryan checked it out, he hadn't shown up to work for three days – missing last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday," he rattled it all off out of the notebook that he held and Beckett was nodding her head.

"Ok. Go by the law firm, talk to his colleagues and his boss, see if anyone might have wanted him dead…" she was about to go on when Castle butted in.

"You're kidding me right? He's a lawyer; he's less popular than the Grim Reaper at a 90th birthday party."

Beckett bit her bottom lip between her teeth and raised her eyebrows at him. He took a baby step back from her.

"Finished ad-libbing Castle?" she asked with a quirk of her brow.

"Yeah, I think I'm good."

Beckett nodded to the two men and they headed off out the door. She turned to follow them, picking up her bag as she did.

"Come on; let's see what the ex-wife has to say about all this."

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Beckett made the call to the ex-wife, Tina, on her way back to the Precinct in the car. Usually she didn't like to use a mobile for fear that the reception would collapse. She was also wary of putting a phone on loudspeaker in front of Castle. She knew he wouldn't say or do anything in such a sensitive situation but she just felt conscious that he, a wordsmith would be analysing the conversation.

Nevertheless, she made the call and was in luck. Tina was already in the city. She sounded quite upset on the phone but assured Beckett that she was currently with a friend and that they would bring her to the Twelfth to meet her.

Beckett exhaled loudly as she hung up the phone.

"You ever get used to making those calls?" he asked quietly and she shook her head.

"No. They're not something you get used to. Everyone's different when you call them. I had one man have a full-on, shouting match with me one day when I told him his wife had been killed. He continued it when he came into the Precinct. People handle things in different ways," she added, making the turn off onto their street.

"Yeah. I hear you on that one," he said wearily, wondering if she would register that he was referring to her. If she did, she didn't show it. Instead, she pulled down into the car park, killed the engine and hopped out. He followed her to the elevator after she locked the doors.

"How long before she gets here?" he asked as the doors opened.

"About five minutes."

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Neither Beckett nor Castle were ready for the sight that greeted them just ten minutes later. Lead by one of the downstairs desk duty guys, Tina Henderson (she was still going by her married name) was a well-dressed, tall, leggy blonde that three years ago would have made Castle's eyes pop out of his head. Now he just looked at her with a mixture of pity and observation. Her make up was well done, possibly retouched but it didn't look like it, which meant she hadn't cried.

What was more interesting about the picture however was the man who followed her. Beckett frowned slightly when she saw him, a much older man, step forward quickly and take Tina's hand in his, squeezing gently. Castle spotted it too.

"Is it just me or does the man with her look a lot like…"

"Trent Henderson." Beckett finished for him, "Yeah. He does."

Castle took a deep breath.

"Oh boy."

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Beckett placed two cups of coffee in front of the Henderson's, offering them a polite smile before sitting down opposite them in the break room. Castle was sitting quietly, trying to gain some sort of insight into the seemingly happy couple in front of him.

"Ms. Henderson, when did you last see or hear from Trent?" Beckett asked after the woman had taken a sip of her coffee. She placed the cup back down softly and swallowed.

"I called by on Saturday but he wasn't in which I found strange because he's always in to see Molly. I tried calling him but he didn't pick up. I guess the last time I actually spoke to him was Thursday night. I called him to make sure he was ok to take Molly on Saturday," she was cool and collected.

"Was there a reason why he might not have taken Molly on Saturday?"

Tina took a deep breath and looked at Tom Henderson, sitting beside her. He nodded and mumbled something along the lines of 'go on'.

"There was an issue the previous week. Trent was, well he was less than impressed by my relationship with Tom. He called me up when he found out about it and was yelling down the phone at me. The week before last, he told me he couldn't take Molly because something had come up out of state that he needed to sort out. I had a lunch date with some friends who only come to town about once a year and when I said he'd promised he freaked out and told me to ask Tom to do it."

Castle cocked an ear at that part. Something about that sounded provocative or accusatory or something that his writer's mind picked up on.

"Why did he say that? It sounds quite accusatory on his part," he asked. Beckett frowned slightly but looked at Tina. Her eyes shifted when Tom spoke.

"Because I was a lousy father for him and he was getting a dig in at her for getting involved with me. In case you're interested, I did take Molly that day. I brought her to Central Park and the Zoo and she had a great time. Trent was only able to remember the not-so-good days. He forgot that there were plenty of good ones if he bothered to remember them."

"Mr Henderson, you sound like you're very annoyed with your son." Beckett said the minute he'd finished speaking. While she didn't think there was anything other than grief and a little bit of hurt or insult borne by the man, she still had to ask considering his tone.

"It doesn't matter anymore what I am. You think I'm not devastated that my only child has died? Well I am and don't suggest otherwise," if he hadn't had his arm around Tina, he'd have pointed at them both, Castle felt. Beckett nodded her head, deciding to move on.

"Do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt Trent, who may have had a grudge against him?" she asked, mindful of the fact that Lanie had neither confirmed or denied murder yet.

"He's a lawyer. That doesn't exactly buy you friends in a city like New York…" Tom jumped in and Castle smirked, making a mental note to mention it again to Beckett later. Beckett made a mental note to not let him mention that remark again. She could _feel_ him smiling next to her.

"Why are you asking that? It was just a fire right?" she asked, glancing from one of them to the other and back as if looking for a tell. Beckett nodded her head.

"So far that's all we know but we like to have all our avenues covered. We should know more when the autopsy and fire reports comes back," she said softly. There wasn't a whole lot more to be said, Beckett didn't think. She took both of their contact details in case she needed to speak to them again.

As the couple were standing up, Castle spoke.

"Do you mind me asking, how long have you two been together?"

Tom smiled at Tina.

"Six months," he said proudly, "We kept it quiet because Trent was having a hard time with a case at work. We knew he'd probably have had just as hard a time with this news so it was better to let him get over the case first."

"Do you know what the case was?" Beckett asked and both shook their heads.

"No, he didn't talk about it. But it was draining him. He still spoke to me a bit back then. Someone in the law firm could probably help you out," he shrugged before pulling his coat around him, taking Tina's hand and heading for the elevator.

As the doors closed, Castle turned to Beckett.

"That is one awkward scenario I would never want to find myself in." he shuddered. Beckett smiled.

"Don't worry Castle. I don't think Alexis' boyfriend is going to fall for you…" she joked and he raised an eyebrow at that.

"How do you know? It's the 21st century and I _am_ ruggedly handsome…" he waggled his eyebrows at her and she shook her head.

"Or your mother's." she added wickedly and he shuddered again, following after her.

"Too far Beckett, too far."

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

_To DarkRedWillow, in regards to setting, it's post Season 3 so during season 4 sometime. Haven't exactly decided when yet but likely after Cuffed too._

_Thanks to all reviewing so far. Hopefully I can pull off the crime writing part of this! It's a little of the 'Make it up as I go' routine but I have a bit of an idea of where I want it to go.  
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